Monday, January 30, 2012

I sold a beholder at the studio and decided I needed replenish the supply. This, should it be lucky enough to survive, will be Beholder #11. The object next to it is meant to be the genitalia of some otherworldly Far Realm entity.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I made two more boggles: A Sight-Stealer Boggle and a Body-Snatcher Boggle. The latter has a straw support to keep it from collapsing. Its future is uncertain and the likelihood of its survival is low.

The first penis monster was fun. There were a few amusing "Won't Somebody Think of the Children" moments among the people at the studio (although I wasn't there to experience them luckily), someone offered to buy it, and it was refused entry into several groups of Deviantart. So I made another cock, and much bigger this time.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The kilns were not kind to the image of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. The face cracked below the nose and the whole face became detached from the background in the bisque kiln. I used glaze to hold it in place, but the big flat piece in the back cracked in the glaze kiln. It still came out in one piece.

"Hate Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry": A delightful quote from Revelation X: The "Bob" Apocryphon.

The studio has an annoying policy of writing the date in pencil on the back of pieces that come out of the bisque kiln. At least, it's annoying to me. The graphite burns off if it's fired again in the glaze kiln so it doesn't affect the piece permanently. It annoys me because the extra handling of already fragile pieces could potentially damage them. I wrote a message on the back of this one saying "You don't need to write the date on me. All of my work is picked up promptly," but I was the one to unload the kiln so it didn't really matter.

These are Verbeegs, green-skinned fey giants for use as miniatures in Beyond the Crystal Cave. The story involves a young interracial (Human and Elf) couple that is drawn into onto a magical island in the Feywild (the world of the faeries that lies parallel to what passes for the real world in the game). An evil Hag and her infernal consort bring the couple to the island in an attempt to gain control of the land, but are partially thwarted by a variety of fey creatures. One of these is a Verbeeg named Ragnar. The human male, Orlando, goes missing, and Ragnar sends his thuggish cousin Basal after Orlando, intending to slay him to keep him out of the hag's clutches. It's a delightfully convoluted story.

This was the first attempt and it came through the kiln missing most of one arm.

Note that Verbeeg can be used in a variety of clever phrases such as "Verbeeg Ego" or "Verbeeg Dilemma" or, in a slightly less clever example, "Verbeeg Miniature."

This is a phallic dog-like creature based on the Etruscan bronze object seen below. At the studio, it's been named the Horn Dog and I'm flattered that some people thought it shouldn't be placed where children might see it. It was moved directly from the glaze kiln to my shelf. This is a good thing and it makes me think that I should incorporate phallic images into most or all of my future work. It was made as a commission, although not the kind for which I will necessarily get paid. Also, someone at the studio offered to buy it. So in addition to casual Judaica, here is my next avenue of income from clay objects: reproductions of ancient erotic art.

I haven't been able to find a lot of information about the original object online. According to the Homoerotic Art Museum, it's an Etruscan bronze sculpture dating from between the 4th and 1st centuries B.C.E. The article in my Man, Myth & Magic encyclopedia narrows it down to the 4th century B.C.E.

This is a second attempt at the Darth Vader Flowerpot from January 2011, which didn't even make it to the kiln. This version survived because it's a much simpler structure. It's also a cruder likeness of Darth Vader.

The view from above. While it is in theory a functional flower pot with drainage holes in the bottom, the helmet curves backwards over much of the pot. The resident plant would either need to be flexible enough to grow around it or willing to occupy the very back part of the pot.

Monday, January 16, 2012

I started a second Ent/Treant figure. This one is based on a digital painting by SirJarva on Deviantart. I realized there was no way I could get the leafy foliage the way I wanted it with clay, so it came out as a vase that doesn't hold water. I was thinking of using broccoli and then possibly changing it out for cauliflower at some point. I think rosemary might also work well.